Forward Deployed Engineer - Security Clearance Eligible

CyRAD Solutions; Virginia (MN); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

CyRAD Solutions is seeking a Technical Operator to support federal and national security customers. This role involves technical delivery, integration, and operating in high-trust environments.

The ideal candidate will have 2+ years of software engineering experience, strong networking knowledge, and the ability to communicate effectively. Compensation is competitive at $180k to $230k, plus equity.

Qualifications

• 2+ years in a software engineering or forward-deployed engineering role.
• Strong ability to scope ambiguous problems and deliver without explicit instruction.
• U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a U.S. Top Secret clearance.

Responsibilities

• Own technical delivery into federal and national security environments.
• Embed with customer teams worldwide to learn workflows and threat models.
• Run pilots, exercises, and demos to produce decision-quality evidence.
• Write production-grade code for integrations and tooling.

Skills

Software engineering experience

Networking knowledge

Problem-solving ability

Communication skills

Resourcefulness

Job description

Location

Arlington, VA or New York, NY (on-site/hybrid).

Platform

A privacy-first mobile carrier built from the ground up, running its own network rather than a layer over legacy infrastructure. Secure cellular service for consumers, businesses, and government agencies, with privacy and security engineered into every layer of the stack. Series C closed in March 2026, scaling fast.

Role

The technical operator who makes the product work in the field for the customers who depend on it most. Embedded with federal and national security customers, sitting at the seam between business development and engineering. The customer's technical advocate inside the company, and the company's technical advocate inside the customer's building. Small, high-trust team writing its own playbook.

Responsibilities

• Own technical delivery into federal and national security environments, from first prototype through operational acceptance and sustainment.
• Embed with customer teams worldwide to learn the workflows, threat models, and constraints that never make it into a requirements document.
• Configure, integrate, and tune mobile core capabilities against each mission profile.
• Run pilots, exercises, and demos structured to produce decision-quality evidence, not theater.
• Provide live technical support during operations and incidents; run root‑cause analysis and push preventive fixes into the platform.
• Write production-grade code for the glue, integrations, tooling, and one-off capabilities that unblock deployments.
• Prototype features in the field, validate against real mission use, and hand successful patterns to core engineering.
• Translate mission requirements into prioritized engineering asks, and engineering constraints back into operator language.
• Partner with BD and solutions architects to convert pilots into programs of record.

Qualifications

• 2+ years in a software engineering or forward‑deployed engineering role.
• Swiss‑army‑knife technical range: code, debug networking, reason about systems‑level tradeoffs, learn fast.
• Strong at scoping ambiguous problems and sequencing delivery without explicit instruction.
• Sharp written and verbal communication, equally fluent briefing a flag officer, writing an engineering ticket, and running a customer working session.
• High ownership and resourcefulness, including the unglamorous parts.
• U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a U.S. Top Secret clearance (active TS strongly preferred).
• Willingness to travel up to 50% to customer sites, military installations, and partner locations.

Nice to Have

• Active TS/SCI.
• Prior military service, government civilian experience, or time in comms, signals, cyber, or intelligence roles.
• Customer-facing technical background at a defense tech startup.
• Mobile networks, telecom, networking infrastructure, or cybersecurity depth.
• Early Engineer Or Operator Experience At a Sub-100-person Company.

Compensation

Salary: $180k to $230k for Arlington, VA, or New York, NY, depending on experience and interview performance, plus meaningful equity.